Our six hour bus journey to Sandakan was not too bad actually, we are really getting used to these long journeys and if the bus is decent it can be quite a nice way to look at the countryside. One thing that I find very upsetting though is the deforestation in this country, in way for palm trees plantations for the production of palm oil so the jungle is barely there. When I imagined Borneo I imagined jungle and when we got here it was really upsetting because as far as the eye can see, it's just Palm trees and although it can be pretty it is just not natural, I know that it brings money to the Country but I hope they realise what they are doing to the Jungle and stop before its too late. Anyway sorry for that but I just had to add that as it has been a constant reminder wherever we go in Borneo, and until I was in the Jungle it did not feel like I was 'really' in Borneo.
Sandakan is a city that used to be the capitol of Sabah but Kota Kinabalu has taken that title. There is not a lot to do here but we are planning on doing a trek in the jungle to see some wild monkeys namely the Orang-Utan and Proboscis monkeys in the wild. There is a sea coast but no beach so for the first three days we chilled out and wandered around the town. We were hoping to go to turtle island where you can watch turtles laying eggs on the beach at night but unfortunately its really expensive so we will have to do that another time. We spent most of our time in our room as it was so hot and there was just nothing to do. For meal times we would go to the only decent restaurant called Hawaii which serves half decent food, but because we crave home cooking and western food and see it on the menu we order it, but of course they don't know how to cook western food and it just turns out to be awful, we never learn though but do try stick to the local dishes. Hawaii has a big menu and we have to laugh at some of the names of dishes like the 'carpet bag steak' and 'boxing chicken', it's just too funny, maybe I will order one of them just to see exactly what they are.
It was finally time to go on our two night and three day trek/ excursion along the Kinabatangan river. The first day we went to Gomantong Cave which is home to the biggest bird nest caves in Sabah, the local people harvest these nests three times a year as the nest's are sold and eaten, they are made from the birds saliva mostly and are about the size of a tea cup and we were told 1 Kg of the processed bird's nest can sell at around £1000. The cave is bloody STINKY though as there are around three million bats living in it so the faeces (which also gets sold as fertilizer) makes it smell so bad. I got a bit scared when a bat flew past my face and then we were told that there were poisonous long legged millipedes all over the place, not so fun when it's really dark in there too, good experience though but I will leave the cave to the local harvesters. When we were going back to the van I got so excited because we heard ruffling in the branches and luckily enough there was a Orang-Utan in the tree, I was so chuffed as he was in the wild and that is one of the reasons we came to Borneo, to show his appreciation he came above us and did a wee, we did not get caught but it was almost as if he were playing with us. seeing him there was a magical moment and is great knowing that there are at least some still left in the wild.
We then went to Sakau where we stayed. The lodges were along the river which were lovely and so peaceful, it was an amazing little place and well worth the money. That first afternoon we went on a river cruise and luckily for us, as it is very rare we saw a herd of elephants on the river side, they are Borneo Pigmy elephants and are so small, there were about ten of them just wading in the water, and there was a month old baby that was just the cutest little thing, it did not quite have its feet yet and was falling all over the place and did not know what to do with its trunk so it was being flung all over the place, and then another mother and baby went for a swim and we were just a few metres away on the boat it was just so amazing. After the elephants we saw some macaques and the most funny looking proboscis monkeys, they are so funny with big long noses and long tails with fat tummy's, there were loads of them just chilling out in the trees along the river, we also saw snakes too but they just don't excite me much, they were pretty colours though. The second day we were up at 6.30 in the morning for breakfast and then went on another cruise, we saw another elephant that was covered in mud and looked pink, and then just spotted loads of different birds and other small monkeys, we then went for a trek in the jungle that proved to be actually really scary, we all looked super cool as we had to wear leech socks and tuck everything in, we did not see much wildlife that morning other than some scary looking spiders and were attacked by small leeches but it was good fun and we all came out unharmed. When we got back on the boat I felt something on my tummy and I got such a fright cause a big fat leech was sucking away, I have no idea how he got in there as all my clothes were tucked in. very strange feeling. After that we just chilled back at the lodge and spotted some massive monitor lizards, one of which was about three metres long but was far too fast to snap a shot of him on my camera. We then went on another late afternoon cruise and saw the usual macaques and proboscis monkeys but this time we saw a young pregnant female Orang-Utan too, she was so stunning and it is amazing seeing them in the wild like that. We were really lucky as we were told some people don't get to see as much as we did especially the elephants as they move up and down the river all year long so we were really lucky and most people never see the Orang-Utan's as they are just so well hidden. I don't really like the Cities in Borneo and find it sad seeing the Deforestation but being in the Jungle was just fantastic and we had such a great time.
We are off to Kota Kinabalu next and hopefully get to sit on a beach there but I have actually given up on that idea and also we are slowly going over budget for this month so we may just be doing nothing while we wait for our flight to the Philippines which we are both really looking forward to.
Until next time …